He had apparently tried out and rejected the mass-market Busch beer in favour of local brand Rainier.

The bear appeared to have got into campers' cool boxes and used his teeth and claws to puncture the cans.

OAKLAND, Calif., July 2 (UPI) -- Smoking is more common in the California gay community than in the state's general population, but researchers say more study is needed.

Lead researcher Elisabeth Gruskin, a scientist at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, compared results from a 2003-2004 tobacco-use survey of 1,950 self-identified gay, lesbian or bisexual residents with a general population survey from 2002.

"It is important to know the prevalence and reasons for smoking because we would like to have tailored prevention and cessation interventions that are appropriate for lesbians, gays or bisexuals," Gruskin said in a statement. "If stress is a huge issue, then you would want stress management as part of an intervention. If glamor is a big reason, you want to contradict that in the media."

Has your child come out of the closet? Ynet-Gesher survey reveals that most Israelis would accept that and go on as usual, but that 27 percent would cut off contact or limit it

Do you have a gay acquaintance?

Country %

Hungary 8
Poland 14
Slovakia 30
Czech Republic 43

Do you regard civil partnerships as acceptable?

Country %

Hungary 36
Poland 42
Czech Republic 61
Slovakia 39

Would you allow homosexuals to marry?

Country %
Hungary 25
Poland 21
Czech Republic 37
Slovakia 23

Would you allow homosexuals to adopt children?

Country %

Hungary 26
Poland 9
Czech Republic 18
Slovakia 14

"One thing interests me: when do people perceive themselves as homophobes? Is it when they reject equal marriage, reject equal adoption rights or is it first when they demand for re-installation of public burning of sodomites?"

In 1994, Rudolf P Gaudio, of Stanford University, published a paper called Sounding Gay: Pitch Properties in the Speech of Gay and Straight Men. Gaudio studied the speech sounds of (a) some openly gay white American men and (b) some openly straight white American men. Then he asked volunteers to listen and see if they could identify which was which. They could.

...

In 1996, Jack Avery and Julie Liss produced a study called Acoustic Correlates of Less-Masculine Sounding Speech. Based at the Veterans Administration Medical Centre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and at Arizona State University, Avery and Liss compared recorded samples of two kinds of speech, applying colourful acronyms to each. One they called "less-masculine-sounding (LMS) male speech". The other they termed "more-masculine-sounding (MMS) male speech".

...

Nearly a decade later, a team based at Northwestern University and at the University of Minnesota took things further still. Janet Pierrehumbert and four colleagues looked at a very particular aspect of the question "What, technically, is the sound of gay male American speech?" They also examined the speech of lesbian and bisexual American women.

The team published a study called The Influence of Sexual Orientation on Vowel Production. Its summary is unapologetically technical. But for acousticians and linguists accustomed to reading dry reports, one passage sings with lilting clarity:

"Differences in the acoustic characteristics of vowels were found as a function of sexual orientation. Lesbian and bisexual women produced less fronted /u/ and /[open aye]/ vowel sounds than heterosexual women. Gay men produced a more expanded vowel space than heterosexual men. However, the vowels of gay, lesbian, bisexual speakers were not generally shifted toward vowel patterns typical of the opposite sex."

The scientists hope that by gathering DNA samples from 1,000 sets of gay brothers like the Mierows they will be able to find genetic linkages smaller studies failed to detect. They'll be recruiting brothers again at the Halsted Street festival this weekend.

The results may ignite controversy, the researchers acknowledge, both by providing ammunition in the raging cultural war over homosexuality and by raising fears about ethically questionable applications like genetic profiling and prenatal testing.

But, they argue, the research is essential to our biological understanding of sexual behavior.

[..]

Studies that compare identical and fraternal twins for the frequency of a particular behavioral trait have consistently suggested there are both genetic and environmental causes of homosexuality. Identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, show a higher chance of both being gay compared with fraternal twins, who typically share the same family environment but only half their genetic code.

One paper at the session featured what may be the most eye-catching title of the meeting: “Erections, Mounting and AIDS: Incestuous Gay Monkey Sex (or seven words you can’t write in your NIH grant).” While the title drew laughter from the crowd here, the paper left many worried. Joanna Kempner, a research associate at the Princeton University Center for Health and Wellbeing, shared preliminary results of her study of the impact of having one’s sexuality-related research attacked by politicians. (In fact, the words from her paper title all come from words whose use was attacked by conservative groups.)

Kempner studied 162 researchers who in 2003 either had their research questioned by lawmakers who tried (and almost succeeded in the House of Representatives) to have their projects blocked for support from the NIH or whose work appeared on what became known as “the hit list” of projects for which the Traditional Values Coalition tried to generate opposition. The research projects — all of which had been approved through the peer review process at the NIH — involved such topics as prostitution, gay sex, unsafe sexual acts, and drug use. Kempner interviewed some of the researchers and sent an e-mail survey to all of them.

While she is still analyzing the results, early findings suggest that the experience of being a target has led some of the scholars to rethink their work or careers. Generally, she found that scholars fell into three, roughly equal groups: those who were proud of their work and who viewed being a target as “a badge of honor,” those who were scared and nervous about the future of their work and careers, and those who had a mix of reactions.

For those who had fears and concerns, there was a real impact on their subsequent decisions, Kempner said. Nearly half said that they took steps to either lower their profile or to change the language in their projects to disguise those qualities that would attract criticism. As one scholar told Kempner of the change, “I do not study sex workers. I study women at risk.” About a quarter said that they had decided to seek funds from non-federal sources in the future, seeking to avoid controversy. This choice is significant, Kempner said, because the NIH is among the better sources of funds for large projects.

About a quarter said that they had decided to seek funds from non-federal sources in the future, seeking to avoid controversy. This choice is significant, Kempner said, because the NIH is among the better sources of funds for large projects.

A new largest-ever survey of gays and lesbians and their consumer spending habits has been released by Community Marketing, Inc. (with Rivendell Media). 26,205 complete responses to the survey were gathered. Of those, 24,563 of them reside within the United States.
...
According to Community Marketing, "From April 13 to May 16, 2007, Community Marketing, Inc. conducted an online survey of lesbian and gay adults. As an incentive, respondents were offered a chance to win one of four airline vouchers valid for a roundtrip flight in North America. This survey comprehensively and effectively represents a broad spectrum of LGBT consumers in all parts of the USA. With a sample size of more than 10,000 for each Index, the margin of error is plus or minus 1% with a 95% confidence interval...

People can accurately judge the sexual orientation of others based on body type and motion, suggests a study released in the September issue of Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology.